Temple’s Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport celebrated the completion of their 700-foot runway extension to their precision approach Runway 15/33 with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, April 30, 2010.
With the new 7,000-foot runway, the Viper West F-16 Demo Team from Ogden, Utah, was able to land for the first time ever in Temple for our Central Texas Airshow and put on a special demonstration after the official red ribbon was cut at the nose of the F-16. TxDOT Aviation Division Director Dave Fulton was the guest speaker.
”TxDOT Aviation played an instrumental role in this project coming to life,” said airport director Sharon Rostovich. ”This is the largest improvement project undertaken at our airport and we are very proud of the end result – a beautiful 7,000-foot runway capable of serving our flying customers well into the future!”
The construction began August 21, 2009, and the runway opened for business on April 16, 2010, with a total budget of $4.3 million. The project was a successful partnership between FAA, TxDOT Aviation, Parkhill, Smith & Cooper, FT Woods Construction, H-S Systems, Inc. and airport customers.
”The airport not only serves major businesses in our community, but also our medical, biomedical research facilities and our military,” said Rostovich. ”The airport is the front door to our city for businesses looking to locate in Temple and currently provides service to high performance jet and general aviation aircraft seven days a week from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m .”
